On Blu-ray April 23rd and currently on Digital from Well Go USA
A newly unemployed journalist starts a podcast and investigates large stones that have been showing up suddenly in random people’s lives.
Written by Lucy Campbell and directed by Matt Vesely, the film takes a deep dive into obsession, alien conspiracies, and a touch of body horror along with some scandals that are often better left alone. Considering the current situation with conspiracies, podcasts, investigations by seemingly random people, the solitude in most people’s lives, this film is very timely. The pandemic, like it or not, has changed how things are done and how most folks live whether they have noticed or not. The film works with these things in a good way while playing in the science fiction field fully, not necessarily clearly at all times. It’s a slow burn of a film that will lose some of its potential audience here and there due to the slowness and how things evolve mostly through conversations where only one person is seen. There is something incredibly brave about this process in terms of having only one cast member on screen throughout the film, only one face to watch (if we don’t count the turtle and a childhood video). The character has to be interesting for this work and here it works mostly. Some of the scenes feel too long, some of them go too deep for this non-cerebral-scifi fan. There is nothing wrong with the story or direction, but it is clearly aimed at fans of more scienc-y or more conspiracy based scifi than those who love their science fiction to be bombastic. It’s a quite film, one that takes a while to get into and where if a scene is missed, it’s difficult to get back into things.
That being said, the lead actress, a pretty much the only person seen on screen for most of the movie, is phenomenal. Lily Sullivan does amazing work with the part, keeping things realistic and thus helping the suspension of disbelief needed once her character’s investigation gets to its meaty point. Her work here is solid and nuanced, just what the film needs. She’s most definitely the right choice here and gives an effective performance. Most of the other performances are voice ones, people she speaks with over the phone. The work is good from everyone involved.
The cinematography here is lovely and makes the most out of the one location style of the film, the house it’s set in, and the peeks of the outdoors the film gives to the audience. The cinematography by Michael Tessari is another solid aspect of the film. The images are well-framed, well-shot, properly lit, giving the lead performance all the room needed to shine while making the film look great. 
Monolith is a solid science fiction film that is a bit much for this viewer unfortunately. The film is very well made and deserving of all the accolades it has been getting, however, if the subject is not one that is of particular interest to the viewer, they will lose interest quickly and lose track of the story as most of it is developed through conversations of which only one side is shown. It’s one of those films that will either be loved or leave the viewer completely nonplussed.